City Council approves soccer stadium, small turnout for the team's season home opener in Citifield

 

 QNS

Willets Point’s long-awaited transformation from industrial wasteland to Queens’ newest neighborhood got the green light from the City Council Thursday.

The legislature approved on Apr. 11 a massive redevelopment that includes a brand new soccer stadium for the New York City Football Club (NYCFC), which has played home games at Yankee Stadium or Citi Field since its inception, and a 100% 2,500-unit affordable housing project that is the city’s largest in four decades.

Mayor Eric Adams called the plan “the goal of the decade” that will generate billions of dollars in new economic activity, and tens of thousands of jobs, through not only the new soccer stadium and housing, but also more than 20,000 square feet of retail and a 250-room hotel.

“We’re building a brand-new community out of the ‘Valley of Ashes’, and we couldn’t have done it without all our partners, including Councilmember [Francisco] Moya and the rest of the City Council, [Queens] Borough President [Donovan] Richards, NYCFC, Queens Development Group, our union members, and everyone living in Willets Point who made their voices heard and demanded a new future for themselves,” the mayor said on Thursday. “After today’s vote, we’re one step closer to delivering that future.”

For years, the city and the Queens community has debated the fate of Willets Point, which for decades has been home to junkyards, auto repair shops and light industry. Even as Shea Stadium rose and was eventually replaced by Citi Field, the industry in the “Valley of Ashes” persisted beyond the Mets outfield while visions for redevelopment never seemed to get off the ground.

 QNS

Thousands of New York City Football Club (NYCFC) fans packed Citi Field on Saturday, Apr. 6, for the team’s first home game in Queens this season, playing against Atlanta United FC. This match marked the beginning of a series of five straight home games, equaling the club’s all-time record for consecutive home matches.

Fans from across the five boroughs packed Citi Field to support their “Boys in Blue” for an eventful night. Kick-off was scheduled for 7 p.m., but fans, especially from NYCFC’s official supporter groups, arrived early for pregame celebrations outside the stadium.

The match started with NYCFC’s early possession of the ball to mount almost-immediate pressure, including a header from center back Thiago Martins that was parried away by the Atlanta United keeper.

NYCFC goalkeeper Matt Freese was impressive in his own right, saving multiple attempts from Atlanta. In the tenth minute, he showed the breadth of his skills, catching a header directed toward his goal comfortably.

In the 39th minute, NYCFC was awarded a penalty. Santiago Rodriguez put the hosts in front from the spot for his third goal of the season in the 42nd minute.

Tensions were rising in the second half and Atlanta pressure paid off in the 66th minute when Jamal Thiare found an equalizer that ultimately rescued a point for the visitors — the match ending in a 1-1 draw.

Rodriguez was awarded the Man of the Match honors, but NYCFC’s slow start to the season continued as they have taken just five points (1-2-4) from their first seven games of the 2024 MLS season.

Uh, oh...

Soccer trickle down housing

New York Times

The stadium would be the first significant major-league sports venue to be built in the city since 2012, and is set to be the focal point of a 23-acre project that includes a 250-room hotel and 2,500 units of housing. Officials say the project would be the city’s largest development of entirely affordable housing since the Mitchell-Lama developments of the 1970s.

The deal represents Mayor Eric Adams’s most ambitious economic development initiative and comes as he is about to complete his first year in office. It also spells the end of two sagas: the team’s decade-long search for a dedicated soccer stadium and an even longer conundrum about the future of Willets Point, a once thriving conglomeration of auto body shops.

“Queens, which is the world’s borough, now will become the home of soccer, which is the world’s sport,” Maria Torres-Springer, the deputy mayor for economic and workforce development, said in an interview on Tuesday.

Unlike many stadium deals, including one for the Buffalo Bills negotiated this year by Gov. Kathy Hochul that included nearly $900 million in public funds, city officials said subsidies for this project are largely limited to infrastructure improvements at the site and property tax breaks for the stadium.

The soccer team will pay for the entire construction of the stadium, which is estimated to cost $780 million, city officials said. Neither tax-exempt bond financing nor direct city capital infusions will be used, according to Andrew Kimball, the president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. The developers are not getting abatements on mortgage recording or sales taxes, he said. But the stadium owners will not have to pay real estate taxes for the duration of the lease.

F your soccer stadium

 

 

 Queens Chronicle

A group of activists and Corona residents gathered along the outer wall of the Willets Point construction site, where Phase 1 of the city’s development project is underway, to voice their opposition to the potential building of a soccer stadium in the area this past Sunday.

Though Mayor Adams’ office told the Chronicle that no agreement has been made for a stadium — which would permanently house the New York City Football Club — at this point, state lobbying records show that the team’s owners, the City Football Group, have pitched the stadium to numerous area stakeholders, including Adams and Councilman Francisco Moya (D-Corona) [see separate story].

Upon hearing the news, longtime activist Bertha Lewis joined forces with the Black Leadership Action Coalition, Nos Quedamos Queens and former Councilman and state Sen. Hiram Monserrate, for Sunday’s rally.

“Our city, as the mayor has stated, has a housing crisis,” Monserrate said Sunday afternoon. “But somehow, our local councilmember and others have concocted a scheme to build another, fourth stadium in this neighborhood — number four — 25,000 more seats, when people don’t have a damn place to live.”

The news of a potential NYCFC stadium is the latest in a years-long saga surrounding development proposed for the area, during which time a previous soccer stadium, a shopping mall and, most recently, a casino, have been proposed for the broader Willets Point-Flushing Meadows Corona Park area. All of those plans, including the casino, have been met with widespread opposition from residents in the surrounding communities.

Not only do stadium opponents believe that the need for housing supersedes the need for the borough’s fourth stadium, but the 1,100 units of housing slated for Willets Point is far fewer than the 5,500 agreed upon in 2007 (a deal Monserrate helped broker), prior to the construction of Citi Field.

“It’s an insult. It’s ridiculous,” Lewis told the Chronicle. “1,100 units. And, oh, we’re supposed to be happy with that? It’s the same story.”

She added that 5,500 units of housing need to be built before anything else is, along with the school the public was promised; the latter is part of the current plan.

One of the chief arguments in favor of building a soccer stadium at Willets Point is that it would create a myriad of new jobs, both in the construction process and once the stadium opens. But Lewis rejects that argument outright.

“You mean selling hot dogs and popcorn? You think that’s a nice career? Don’t give me that bulls--t,” Lewis said.